


Cruel Summer

by MrsPotterDrEw



Series: Lover One Shots [2]
Category: High School Story (Visual Novel)
Genre: F/M, Song: Cruel Summer (Taylor Swift)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-22
Updated: 2020-06-22
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:07:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24851317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrsPotterDrEw/pseuds/MrsPotterDrEw
Summary: Emma Hawkins and Aiden Zhou have a secret relationship in the summer that they are scared to carry on once school has started again.
Relationships: Emma Hawkins/Aiden Zhou
Series: Lover One Shots [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1797787
Comments: 3
Kudos: 2





	Cruel Summer

**Author's Note:**

> This is my personal headcanon with Emma and Aiden so hopefully, you guys enjoy it. Again sorry if you hate it.

It all started on a hot summer’s day in Cedar Cove. Emma was working the early shift at the Easy Brew Bakery, she had been lucky enough to get this summer job. All the other summer jobs had been taken by returning college kids. Emma had accidentally found this little bakery as a way to get out of a summer rainstorm. Best decision she had made, this little bakery had become her haven away from the stress of school and home. The calm feel it gave off with the dim lighting, high ceiling, bean bags and comfortable chairs everywhere made it the perfect getaway.

This was her place, she had only mentioned it to her best friend Hermione. Apart from that no one in her group of friends even knew this place existed. She liked it that way, she had found this bakery and if she didn’t want to share it with everyone. She was not going to.

Therefore, seeing Aiden Zhou walk through the door was surprising. Not only because Emma was not that close to him and felt awkward around him. In her defence, it was very hard not to feel intimidated by his musical genius. Didn’t help that he was handsome as well but came off as a bit of an arrogant guy.

Seeing Aiden, Emma had ducked down the counter trying to hide. This was a bad idea since Emma was the only one working the counter today and Sheila her co-worker was currently taking her break.

Unbeknownst to Emma, Aiden had seen her duck down. It made him smile, Emma’s shyness was similar to his own. The only problem, Emma’s shyness was cute while him being shy came off as arrogant. Standing at the counter, he waited for Emma to come up and serve him.

Slowly Emma stood up, gave Aiden a big fake smile that just showed her nerves.

“Hey Aiden, welcome to Easy Brew Bakery, what would you like today?” Phew, the greeting was out of the way, knowing how Aiden was, Emma was sure he would order his drink then leave. Never to speak of this encounter again to her or anybody else.

That was not what happened. Rather than taking his order to go, he wanted to eat in. He found a table secluded in the corner, took out his laptop and just go to work. So, engrossed in his work that it took Emma tapping his shoulder for him to realise that the Bakery was empty besides the two of them.

“Uh, just wondering, um, what were you, uh working on that you, uh, didn’t even realise the time?” Emma asked, trying to be friendly. She did not know how to talk to Aiden. It was times like this that Emma cursed her shyness and wished that she had Hermione’s friendliness.

Aiden gave Emma a small smile. “Just some music stuff, trying to figure out a new composition. It’s not going so well” Sighing, Aiden started to pack away his things.

“Oh well, knowing how much of a genius you are, you’ll figure it out” Emma gave him a big smile that she hoped came off as encouraging. As he packed away, Emma took his cup and plates to wash not paying attention to Aiden.

Having finished the last of the dishes, Emma went to the small staff room just to the side of the counter, hidden from customers view. Got her things and went back to the counter to make sure everything was in the right place and clean. Ready for Meredith and Darren who were taking the morning shift.

“What are you still doing here” Turning around she saw Aiden standing there by the door. Shocked, Emma was confused at why Aiden was still there, she thought he had left 20 minutes ago after she had picked up his dishes.

“Well it’s late, I know you don’t drive so I thought I’d give you a ride home”. Suddenly Aiden felt nervous, at the time it had seemed like a good idea to wait for Emma. They were in the same group of friends, yet he knew nothing about her. Driving her home was only the polite thing he could do.

“Sure, thanks for waiting for me Aiden.” Emma smiled at him, a real smile. With all her friends busy this summer, Emma had missed talking to someone from her group of friends. This was also an opportunity to get to know Aiden better.

Smiling Aiden, opened the door to let Emma pass through. Waited for her to close up the Bakery and then led her to where he had parked his car. Once Emma gave him, her address they were off.

It was a comfortable silence, one that Emma didn’t want to break but she had to get answers from Aiden.

“Just wondering, how did you find Easy Brew?”

Aiden turned to look at Emma before turning back to the road. “I found it last year, it is a good place for me to focus on my music without my parents around, when did you find it?”

Nodding her head Emma replied. “I just found it when there was that rainstorm in June, went in to get shelter, stayed there the until closing than when I found out they needed workers for the summer I applied.” Smiling Emma remembered how easy it had been to get a job at Easy Brew, being a regular she was known so during her interview Mrs Granger was more than happy to give her the job.

Before Aiden could reply to her, they had reached her house. Getting out Emma made her way to her door, waving to Aiden and waiting till he had driven off before going inside.

This was just the start though. In the new few weeks, they fell into a routine. Aiden would come into Easy Brew around the same time, order the same things then at the end of her shift give Emma a ride home.

During this time, they learnt a lot about each other. Both of them realised that they could be themselves around each other, they did not have to follow the labels that they had in school. Emma was not just Hermione Barnes shy best friend and Aiden was not just the Schools musical genius.

While Emma loved getting to know Aiden, she was also worried that she would fall in love with Aiden. He was nothing like she expected and the more she got to know him, the more she knew that she was at risk of falling in deep.

Aiden loved getting to know Emma more. She was so much more than just Hermione’s sidekick as he had thought of her before. He was embarrassed about judging her without getting to know her. Seeing Emma, made his day. No matter how bad of a mood he came in with. After dropping he home he was smiling widely.

Aiden knew he was falling for Emma, despite not knowing what she felt for him. He was determined to tell her, how he felt. He couldn’t be afraid of rejection. Even if he did get rejected, he knew Emma would carry on as before and not let it affect their relationship.

Finally, he worked up the courage to tell her. To his surprise, rather than giving him an answer. Emma kissed him on the lips.

That was the first kiss of many. Aiden’s routine of coming into Easy Brew and then dropping Emma home stayed the same. But now they were texting each other constantly. Whenever Emma had the day off, Aiden was taking her on dates.

They were happy together. They brought out the best in each other and neither could believe that they had gotten together.

The honeymoon period had to end at some point. It was coming close to the start of school. Emma did not know if they would carry on dating into the school year. Whenever Emma brought it up, Aiden would avoid and change the subject. She was determined to get an answer from him tonight. It was the weekend before school started on Monday. Emma needed to know where they stood.

Sitting in Aiden’s car, Emma took a deep breath, this would either end her relationship or carry it on.

“Aiden, I need a straight answer, what happens when school starts?” Emma asked, not looking at Aiden, she had an idea of what he might say and did not want to look at him as he broke my heart.

“I um well, I don’t know, this us. It’s been amazing but school is a completely different place, were different people there.” Aiden was fumbling. He knew what he wanted but he was scared. Emma made him feel things he had never felt before and he knew this was a bad idea but he did not know what else to do.

Emma laughed humourlessly. “Huh, well I might as well end on I love you, yeah you heard right. I love you Aiden Zhou” Without giving him a chance to reply Emma sprinted out of the car, opened her door and went inside without even looking back at Aiden or waiting for him to drive off as she would. 

Never did Aiden think that an I love you from Emma would be the worst thing he ever heard. This had been the best Summer of both of their lives but with the way it ended. It had become a cruel summer filled with memories neither wanted to forget but felt they had to forget to move on.

However, a week into school starting, Aiden couldn’t handle it. The memories of the past summer, everything he felt for Emma and the damage he had done to both of them by not admitting his feelings and being afraid was done. 

Looking at Emma smiling at Hermione from across the cafeteria. He made up his mind. He would do everything he could to convince Emma to get back together with him.


End file.
